Up against stiff competition from the Olympics—which drew a prime time crowd of 24 million on Monday night and will soon be followed by the similarly threatening NFL season—viewership for WWE's flagship has been unspectacular over the past several weeks.

With a main event feud that pits newcomer Finn Balor against fellow independent wrestling veteran Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship, average viewership numbers for Raw are below three million heading into SummerSlam.

Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins. Graphic by House Money Studios.

So is it any coincidence that Monday's go-home show quickly turned into the Roman Reigns show?

With no physical world championship on the program, the Rusev-Reigns program took center stage. To the untrained eye, the United States Championship seemed like the Raw world title. And on this night, it pretty much was.

Rusev vs. Roman Reigns. Graphic by House Money Studios.

Raw was book-ended by a confrontations between Rusev and Reigns. During the opening segment, Rusev told Stephanie McMahon "I am the champion of your show, I need respect!"

After a heated exchange at the top of the show led to a pay-per-view caliber match in the main event, Reigns seemed like the guy for the first time since returning from suspension.

Roman Reigns. Graphic by House Money Studios.

Reigns' clean victory almost negates the type of payoff usually reserved for a SummerSlam stage. This could be an indication that Rusev will "get his win back" at the summer classic, which would free up Reigns to return to the world title picture as a full-time main eventer.

So what about Bàlor? What about Rollins? Both hold clean pinfall victories over Reigns this summer, which led many to believe he had fallen out of favor. But as WWE approaches one of its biggest pay-per-views of the year, does it already have one hand in the Reigns cookie jar?